Masters of the Air [Apple]

Quiet Achiever

Band of Brothers. Made by Hallmark. It was pukey for all the wrong reasons.

EltonJohn69

I enjoyed it. There is a huge lack of quality shows on tv because of the strike and this is the only recent show that is worth watching. Yeah it was a bit too patriotic and what not but it was entertaining and makes you realise how soft we have become.

Mr Disco

Woeful effects. Wooden acting beyond belief. So much for Masters of the Air. Most of it set in a POW camp. The 3 halfwits pointlessly escaping to be ambushed by 10 years olds. Woeful series. An embarrassment to all concerned.

McGrath5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121899186#Comment_121899186

Why did you watch it all the way to the end?

I thought it started out weak but the last 4 episodes picked up well. The bit at the end that showed what happened to them after the war was nice.

Nowhere near as good as Band Of Brothers, but the makers caught lightening in a bottle there.

JustAPoorDreamer

That was really good. I enjoyed it all and loved the ending letting us no what happened to them all. They all seemed to do well bar Bucky was it who only got to 45 years young.

It gave me tears anyway. I always shed tears reading about how someone's life turned out especially heroes like in this.

Zak Flaps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121899399#Comment_121899399

Don't bother. He was asked before but couldn't answer. Loneliness would be my guess.

ejmaztec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121899186#Comment_121899186

The only woeful thing that I see is your way OTT "griping" on this thread.

extra gravy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121899399#Comment_121899399

He watched it so he could have a whine on here every week.

Agent Coulson

Apple also now has the Bloody Hundredth documentary up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uACQ4uVRY

silverharp

I like that they covered elements In the war Ive not seen on the screen before, the forced marches for instance or the Dutch humanitarian mission towards the end of the war but the show suffered from being a mile wide and an inch deep and there were production flaws, too much mumble shouting to the point I missed 1 or 2 little plot points but wasnt arsed rewinding, I dont think it has any re-watchable value, a 7/10 show but move on.

ondafly

Fantastic show with an excellent theme tune. We really got off lightly in Ireland during WW2.

Homelander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121904263#Comment_121904263

I think you really hit the nail on the head with the mile wide, inch deep comment. The show had good scope, but the stuff outside the aerial missions just wasn't very compelling or particularly well done.

My other big complaint is that an awful lot of the aerial CGI was obvious, very floaty with no weight to it like you often see in the likes of Marvel movies. Whatever about the latter, in a historical production it stands out badly.

Still a decent show but falls far short of the greatness of Band of Brothers or The Pacific and I doubt I'd ever watch it again down the line.

squonk

I’m just finished episode 4. I can see the focus of the show starting to change from air to ground activities. I’m not sure about that. The power in the show for me so far was these guys coming back time and time again flying these dangerous missions and trying to cheat death. Honestly I found it humbling because these guys were much braver than I would ever have been, even at their age.

It’s a bit HOO-RA USA though. We’ve only seen 3 RAF officers and they were there as caricatures. The show is starting to feel bogged down for me now they’re turning to extrication missions behind enemy lines. I know they have to cover that but it just feels like the show is starting to grind to a halt compared to the frenetic pace of earlier episodes.

I hope they were brave and had Bucky buy the farm but it’s Hollywood so he no doubt survived the crash and we’ll probably get a “behind enemy lines” thing out of that.

I love the small touches they highlight like the Red Cross hanging out donuts and coffee to the crews before missions. That really got me as a very human gesture.

So, I’m enjoying it but it’s only now characters are starting to emerge. I watched, but didn’t rewatch BoB and had the same impression at the time that most of the guys blended into each other. I think anyone complaining should give iMotA a few rewatches first. It probably isn’t as great as that show for sure but it’s too early to say anything long lasting about it I feel.

setanta1984

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908162#Comment_121908162

There's no "being brave" about killing characters off, these were real people and what happens to them in the show (mostly) really happened to them.

I agree with most of your points though. Highlights of the show are the incredibly tense air combat scenes, absolutely brilliant. When these slow down the rest of the show isn't to the same level, but still very good. Like mentioned previously they seem to rush through periods that could have been fantastic mini series in their own right, like the tuskegee pilots and the behind enemy lines/prisoner of war camps - both felt very rushed. "mile wide and an inch deep" from previous poster says it well.

Biggest problem for me was some iffy casting. Austin Butler, really didn't like him, felt like he was on a modelling shoot whenever on screen, and his delivery was beyond cheesy. Wasn't a fan of Barry Keoghan either. Anthony Boyle, Callum Turner and Nate Mann (who I'd never heard of) were good though.

Your opinion of BoB as someone who only saw it the once is interesting, and tallies with my belief these shows require multiple watches to really connect with the characters. I'm looking forward to focusing more on the likes of Crosby in the earlier episodes, who I didn't immediately realise was going to be one of the anchors. Even simple things like recognising the airmen who escape with the resistance in the episodes leading up makes a big difference with connection.

I really enjoyed the show overall - though I admit as such a BoB and Pacific fan I was always going to be all in on this. Very much looking forward to going through it again in a few months.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121908917#Comment_121908917

True they are real characters but what I really meant was establishing one or two prime characters that ended up dieing in a raid half way through would have made it resonate much more for me. Like, I’m sure crews found themselves sitting at breakfast with friends from other crews and that would have been their last interpersonal contact. I think as an audience it might absolutely hit home the shocking consequences of what they were doing. I know they go to great pains to show but I wasn’t invested enough in any characters so far to really feel it.

dickdasr1234

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121898752#Comment_121898752

Band of Brothers reminded me of cowboys and indians where the baddies run around haplessly waiting to be shot. I watched a scene last night that would have been better suited to Benny Hill!

squonk

Finished this earlier this evening. They should have led with the documentary IMHO. It put a lot of historic context on what was happening in the show.

Like was said earlier, it spanned wide and shallow. They really threw in everything possible to find in WWII.

I felt it was really one dimensional. All Germans are bad guys. All Brits are arrogant. It’s a good thing us Americans were here to bail out you Europeans. I wish they’d gone into what Sandra was doing. It looked like intelligence but they just largely left her as Crosby’s willy cosy

Tge Toskege Airmen deserved its own series. It’s equally as interesting as the 100ths story.

I think if you’re American this is an ok series. They really didn’t delve into much on the European side. Maybe if they were more focused it might have worked better. I can’t help feeling it’s just another Hooray USA kind of show. I think if they ran it over two seasons and provided more rounded detail it would have been much more fulfilling.

Notmything

Just finished it tonight.

Felt it dropped off from about episode 6. Too much to cover with too little time.

Should have left the Tuskegee airmen out altogether, they didn't bring anything to it.

I've read both Miller's book and Crosby's, so much material they left out.

In particular Crosby's character didn't get the recognition he deserved. In his own book Crosby mentioned how General Le May named him as one of those responsible for winning the air war (or to that effect), felt in the show his abilities were not fully seen.

Notmything

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121914814#Comment_121914814

But it's based on an American perspective and an American unit. So of course the allies are sidelined. I get what you are saying but it was not a documentary

Dav010

As BoBs is one of my all time favourite series, I was very much looking forward to MotA. But as others have said, it fell flat. The characters weren’t given any depth and for the most part were uninteresting. Episodes skimmed over events to the point where it almost felt like it wasn’t even loosely based on real missions.

To be it looked poorly edited, kinda thrown together, think I read somewhere that the makers had a lot of problems putting the series together and it shows. The Tuskegee episode really added nothing to the series, though they may have been a very important unit and probably deserved better.

All in all, I won’t be watching it again.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121932715#Comment_121932715

It’s true it’s based on a US perspective but it’s the way it’s based that bothered me. No like minded UK officers, just the stereotypical upper class Brit wanting to give a yank the thrashing he deserved. Brits doing everything wrong but the yanks know better. Homestly it reminded me of one of those Jerry Bruckheimer movies or like Independence Day where the whole world were helpless but thankfully the USA is on the job so sorted out the whole alien mess for everyone It’s one of the bad aspects of American film that they just walked into here too. I’d have expected more with Spielberg and Hanks involved.

Notmything

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121933290#Comment_121933290

The commentary about the British is pretty much lifted from Cosby's book from what I remember, definitely the interactions when he was at Oxford.

PhiloCypher

I'm only 4 episodes in, but one criticism I feel is overblown, at least in how it compares to BoB, is the corny americanness of it all. Having rewatched BoB recently, it's accents are just as corny, Garniere's is as cliched an accent as you'll hear , and Dexters Fletchers Bronx accent is everybit as dubious and clichéd as Barry Keoghans.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121933410#Comment_121933410

Thanks. I haven’t read any of the books but it was just my observations based on the show itself.

Notmything

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934519#Comment_121934519

Ah yeah I get that, and they were jarring, but the show had deeper issues.

Still it's pushed me to rewatch BoB and the Pacific now.

setanta1984

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934464#Comment_121934464

To be fair, the real Guarnere speaks at the end of the last episode and I don't think the actor does a bad job at all - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGZHOZj7Lwo

I generally agree with the overblown cheesiness criticism of MotA, for me though its warranted for Austin Butler - though tbf I've not heard the real Cleven speak but I think its unlikely he sounds exactly like Butler...

I really do think this will benefit from re-watches just like BoB and The Pacific - I distinctly remember being cold on the Pacific during the first airing - I've since re-watched it many times, most recently this month, and it is an amazing piece of work, not far behind BoB imo.

squonk

After some thought I think the shoe might have benefited from a little introductory piece. I don’t remember how long the intro interviews were on BoB but even a little 3-5 minute piece stitched together out of the documentary that grounded each episode and talked about the motivations would have been good. As is the main intro seemed enormously long to the point there it necessitated skipping. I’d have targeted a short intro to contextualise the episode. For those coming in cold it would have helped. I think if they’d released the Bloody 100th documentary a week or two before the show aired I’d have gotten more out of the show itself.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121936122#Comment_121936122

BoB certainly benefitted from interviews with characters in the series, more serious docs like Ken Burns Vietnam and the excellent Commando series about UK special forces are better for interviews with real soldiers. I get that MotA is not a documentary, but it is supposed to be based on real war events. Problem for MotA, they are likely all dead (certainly if you go by the limited bios at the end of the series), I think this series was mooted around the time of BoB in the early 2000s I read somewhere, but they waited until 2013 for a book to base it on, so they possibly should have started interviewing pilots at the same time as infantry.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121936146#Comment_121936146

They should. Hindsight is 20-20 though so I suppose they had one on their plate with BoB not to mention third party projects to be on top of everything. How long were the interview segments on BoB? Even without the men themselves even a quick one minute voice over images of the type saying how far into the overall mission they were, what was happening re morale, planes, losses etc. Judt a kind of précis of the reject section from the documentary would have grounded the show more.

al87987

It was fine, bit of a letdown, some good aerial fights but they gradually subsided as the series went on.

Austin Butler was horribly miscast though, he must have been in that camp for about a year and he still looks like he's ready to walk the red carpet at any point.

Main problem was I didn't really connect with many of the people portrayed, Crosby and Egan probably the only ones.

Rosie, Cleven, Tuskagee stories were all a bit meh.